1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing management device, a print server, a world-wide-web server, a printing method, and a storage medium which are used for making a printout of accumulated documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the spreading of mobile stations, such as cellular phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants), various kinds of data can be acquired through the mobile communications network not only at the indoor locations, such as the house or the office, but also at the outdoor locations.
For example, when the user who carries a mobile station which is capable of accessing the Internet goes out from the office to a certain destination place, the user is able to check the train transfer data on the mobile station's display at a nearby station of the office, and able to check the map near the destination place on the mobile station's display at a nearby station of the destination place.
However, the user is unable to view the information exceeding the display capability of the mobile station on the display. For example, in a cellular phone, only the information that can be displayed by using the browsing functions of the cellular phone, such as a C-HTML (compact hypertext markup language) file, a HDML (handheld device markup language) file, and a WML (wireless markup language) file, can be viewed fundamentally.
Even when the user carries a PDA which is superior in display capacity from the cellular phone, only the file corresponding to the application program installed in the PDA can be viewed. For example, a specific document edit application file, a specific spreadsheet application file, etc. cannot be viewed unless the corresponding application program is installed in the PDA.
Specifically, even if a sales person who carries a PDA and goes out to a destination place is able to access the server which retains a product price table created with a specific document edit application program, the user is unable to view the product price table unless the corresponding application program is installed in the PDA.
Moreover, even if the network which can be used at a fixed communication terminal is changed to a broadband network, the network which can be used with the mobile station does not have an adequately high transmission speed.
Moreover, even if the file format which can be displayed with a mobile station is used, the user of the mobile station is generally unable to view the information of a file having a large-size on the display. Even if the information of such a file having a large size can be viewed partially, the display screen of the mobile station is small, and the user is able to view only a small amount of the information contained in the file at a time.
Moreover, the mobile station hardware has such restrictions that a small number of pixels can be used for the display screen.
To eliminate the problem, the ordinary method is that the information only for the mobile station which meets the hardware restriction of the mobile station is generated and the user is provided with such information only for the mobile station. However, the information only for the mobile station has the tendency that the amount of the characters increases when the information contains few images. Moreover, there is the tendency that the image with a low resolution is supplied. The contents of the information are hard to view or to understand.
Therefore, there is the demand for making a printout of the information in the format which cannot be displayed on the display screen of the mobile station, and a printout of the information of a file having a large data size though it can be displayed. The printed matter is finally supplied to the user, and the request for viewing the information is satisfied with the printed matter.
A conventional printing system is provided to receive a printing request from a mobile station. For example, when the request and the printing data including the printing number of sheets are received from the mobile station, the conventional printing system outputs the printing data to the printer based on the request from the mobile station, so that the printing of the printing data is carried out at the printer. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-216237 discloses such printing system.
However, at the outdoor locations, generally, there is no printer in the vicinity of the user who moves. When the printer is found out, the information is chosen at the print-out location and the printing request is carried out at the printer, it may become clear that the selected information cannot be printed only after carrying out the printing request at the print-out location.
For example, when a print driver corresponding to the printer is not installed in the mobile station, the printing of the selected information is impossible.
Even when the print driver corresponding to the printer can be downloaded at the print-out location through a network, the acquired print driver may not operate normally depending on the specifications of the mobile station. Moreover, the fact that the printing of the selected information is impossible may become clear at the print-out location since the selected information is not the type which corresponds to the print driver or the printer.
It is possible that a test printing of the information of the same type as that of the selected information is carried out, in advance, at the remote print-out location, and the printing of the selected information is performed later. However, the check or sending of the result of the test printing must be requested to a person who is at the print-out location. If the person is not at the print-out location, the check of the result of the test printing cannot be requested.
Moreover, the problem also arises when the information is chosen and the printing request is carried out at a distant place from the print-out location. If the printing is finished earlier than the time the user reaches the print-out location and another person takes the user's printed matter away, the user cannot acquire the printed matter.